TIME IS PRECIOUS

Details

Published on Friday, 10 November 2017 12:54

Our customers are more and more aware of their expectations regarding functionality, quality and aesthetics. They are interested in top quality products. Stone meets this requirement. But both consumers and contractors are not happy to hear that they will have to bear the costs which are typical of handicrafts.

Is stone industry facing an inevitable decision to implement ideas of the fourth industrial revolution? Industry 4.0 – a term coined for the needs of digitalisation and automation of production has already found an ally in government. According to the Smart Industry 2017 study, which was carried out by the Ministry of Development along with Siemens company, Polish companies are relatively closed to external information and cooperation and reactive towards technological changes.

Automation of stone processing plants is just a matter of time because it can be associated with mass production. The situation is different among craftsmen. Some of them are wrong thinking that automation of small plants is not cost-effective because they produce short-line and unique goods. They are wrong when we take a look at the situation of German craft. The German Confederation of Skilled Craft (ZDH) has recently conducted a study on the role of digitalisation. We need to know that this sector is very diverse: a million of companies hire around 5.3 million workers, and a half of the companies have less than 5 employees. There are as many as 150 various craft professions in Germany. Their representatives say that the most most beneficial for them will be optimisation of storage and distribution of goods, time savings and more flexible work organisation. A fourth of all the companies – from micro-companies to small and medium enterprises – are now using digital solutions such as tracking systems in warehouse management, 3D printers and scanners, preventive maintenance technologies, robots or … drones. Specialist software to manage data and customers’ projects are used by nearly a half of the companies.

Is anybody suggesting low efficiency of stone production in Poland? It is not possible to improve something we have no data about. What is then the contemporary image of stone craft?

POLE VAULT

It is not particularly difficult to prove that our branch faced revolutionary changes in the last two decades.

- When we launched mass production of wire saws in 2005, the market was full of 3000 mm cutting disc saws, but in 2007 the number of sold wire saws and 3000 mm cutting disc saws was more or less the same. Later the ratio was 3 to 2 to the advantage of diamond wire machines and in 2009 6 to 1. We have been producing only diamond wires for a few years now – says Katarzyna Szłapa from ZPU PROMASZ, who confirms that her company decided to produce cheaper to use and more precise saws.

All market participants – producers of semi-products and stone goods – are beneficiaries of the unprecedented technological progress. Besides, we have to mention an important role of EU funds. Thanks to them, family stone companies in Poland have as modern CNC machines as their counterparts in Europe. Another thing is that machines owned by stonemasons who specialise in “inside construction” are far more modern than those that belong to stonemasons who deal with road construction or tombstones. The situation of exploiting the potential of machines looks a little bit worse.

Let us have a look at an interesting comment on this by a manufacturer … of process water purification systems.

- When comparing our stone industry customers from the domestic market with our neighbouring countries’ markets like the Czech Republic, Lithuania or Latvia, we can clearly see that our Polish companies are much more modern and have more developed machinery stocks, says Grzegorz Górski from Silkam company.

- But when we compare stone industry with related industries, machinery stocks are, in my opinion, especially in glass companies, much more modern than in stone plants. This is obviously true when we speak about industrial plants, not small glass firms.

As a general rule, the largest spare production capacity lies in small companies rather than in big players (for example in stone processing plants). It is true, as it will be easier for a narrowly specialized manufacturer to put machines in a process line. Cutting – machining – manual processing of the final product. Industrial waste? Most companies did not have any technical or financial problem with disposal of sludge from horizontal settling tanks 10 or 15 years ago. The situation, however, has changed. What we have now is the so-called TCO – Total Cost of Ownership. After all, stone processing needs hectolitres of water and its quality is of great importance to the quality of the product, process speed and … life of machines and tools.

- Twenty years ago Lower Silesian stonemasons (and there are many of them) were not interested in treatment plants at all because they found them completely useless. Now they know how useful or even necessary they are. Most companies (from all industries) are now investing in water treatment plants. They are doing it not from ecological reasons but from financial ones. Developing companies which are investing in modern, efficient and automatic machines understand that process water management constitutes an important element in company’s total operating costs. Every downtime for cleaning settling tanks and changing water means engaging workers in additional work – adds Grzegorz Górski.

We have already mentioned the technological advantage of glass industry. Strict quality standards for products make glass companies count every penny and do their best to use their machinery stock to the fullest. The comment from a representative of the company which produces machines for stonemasons, glaziers and furniture makers is very telling here:

- If it comes to glass industry, we have been able to observe an unprecedented progress for a few years. It is so because they offer low margin products, so everybody does their best to make production costs lower – says Konrad Węgrzyn from Mekanika company.

- Operator is the biggest production cost now. It is very difficult to find a good operator, so companies focus on automation. Automatic loading is now a standard in every big glass company whilst if it comes to stone companies there are just a handful of them! Software for optimising material use, the so-called nesting, waste management, digital slab registration systems are still something new for stonemasons, although they all contribute to material waste reduction.

Now it is time to explain why this part of the text has been entitled “pole vault”. There is a point in technological excellence of processing machines from which any further innovation will not be as revolutionary as previous ones. Feed rate, spindle speed, rich accessory storage … – last years show that engineers performed miracles, but resistance of material or physical laws are so inexorable that the equipment which helps to reach factory performance of production machines is potentially more cost-effective than the machines themselves. It is true that having CNC machining centres guarantees more profits, but the so-called transition times in a nesting like system may ruin even the most advanced production plant. It is important because today we have to find an answer to the question how to provide more customized products in a wider range of options but in smaller batches, offering competitive prices, good quality and short delivery times. Can you imagine that order lead times in your company are getting shorter by as much as 95%?

NON-PRODUCTIVE TIME

Identify your resources and production capacities and then plan your production in such a way as to be able to change production plan any time without harming the most important orders. Set priorities, distribute tasks and monitor machine availability. Take into consideration changeover times and share production orders in such a way as to get the best flexibility, that is to be able to manage particular orders between lines or machines.

This is the main idea of QRM (Quick Response Manufacturing) method. QRM makes the whole organisation (material planning, supplies, supply chain management, office work and development of new products) focus on one key habit, that is competing by means of short lead time. Surprisingly, after speaking to technology suppliers – especially CNC machines – we learned that few companies want to (can?) count costs. Example? Let us start from the first stage, that is measuring the building in which stone stairs are to be installed. Non-economical scenario will include as many as 5 steps: getting to the customer and taking measurements; coming back to the company and making templates; going to the customer again to make sure the measurements are good; enter measurements to the machine; cutting the element out.

- Economical scenario will include only three steps. All you need to do is to give Proliner/Laser device to your workers. Thanks to it, your workers will be able to edit the project in real time with the customer on site. Before they come back to the company, the machine will start doing the project which was previously sent via the Internet and confirmed by the customer – says Konrad Węgrzyn.

There are also other examples of state-of-the-art IT technology. Here is a proof that performance levels of CNC machines are so high that nobody can beat them. Breton XpressTop had its debut at Marmomacc 2017. This is an advanced modular solution for stone companies to manage production, improve efficiency, lower costs and meet higher quality standards of products.

- We are speaking about a platform and a modular approach, because this software assists the operator all the time. Time saving is treated here in an innovative way. We are able to precisely decide about material resources and to manage production (also low volume production!) process in a very detailed way – says Tomasz Kopka from BRETON Polska.

This software ensures real-time monitoring of the stock. Its users will also avoid mistakes thanks to BOM application (multi-level bill of materials) – everything you need to manufacture a finished product.

STEPS, MY BELOVED STEPS

Proper arrangement of machines and creating of the so-called process line whilst particular line segments are separated by warehouse buffers.

- Many companies are investing in more processing machines in order to reduce the basic processing time, which includes, for example, drilling or polishing and excluding preparation-completion times in the whole production process – says Bogusław Pawlikiewicz from Expoglass company.

- Paradoxically, optimising the storage process is relatively cheap compared to how much we can save.

Our interviewee prepared a key evidence (see the chart). That is what depreciation of investing in a slab storage looks like. Not only can you put more there than in case of traditional A stands (pyramid type), so it empties a very precious floor, but also optimizes access to the machine. Slabs tilt only to one side which makes loading onto processing station easier. It seems not enough, though. Stonemasons prefer to invest 10 times less in A stands. They do not understand that this is just the initial cost and that investing in the innovative solution will pay off in 7 years and from that moment the storage owner starts getting profits because the total cost of ownership (TCO) of occupied area of the warehouse is lower.

Let us go on if we are still far away from automation. During loading or unloading of machine – the standard saw is stopped – which means its cutting is stopped. Interchangeable table? It may reduce unproductive delay to just 20 seconds. If you do not have it you may waste a quarter! This is a lot when we take into consideration unloading of cut elements and loading another slab.

Inefficient processes and late order completions – without looking carefully at machinery stock and organisation of both production and (most of all!) share of unproductive time, it will turn out that competition is able to shorten lead times by 95%! This is not a fairy tale! It is a result of a careful analysis of “bottlenecks” and implementation of a rescue plan.

CHECK THE CONDITION OF MACHINES

Why isn’t this text a paean in honour of stone goods producers? Because few CNC users take advantage of IT advances.

- It’s a pity that we don’t make full use of expensive machines we buy. Planning production? It should be done in the office rather than in front of the CNC machine. The tradesman should sit at his customer’s and the machine operator should get an order from him via the Internet – says Konrad Węgrzyn.

Now something on the margin. Mekanika company is now thinking about another new thing. This time it will help to save money on expensive machinery diagnostic services and repairs. For now we know that a businessman who will have Gepetto app in his phone will be able to make a service request very quickly.

Gathering information on current production, machine operational status and product quality became an indispensable element of everyday work of manufacturing companies. Growing customers’ expectations regarding low repeatability production, top quality guarantee, sector-specific regulations producers have to meet as well as internal pressure to lower production costs make the amount of gathered information bigger year by year. What should we start from? From gathering reliable data, that is equipping operators’ stations with HMI panels, which enable us to complete automatically registered data with context information (e.g. about the cause of machine downtime).

Hiring a robot? We may consider it, as robots like Kuga or Geko can replace a man with loading and unloading goods. But there is another problem here because a stonemason seems to be a more and more difficult contractor. Suffice it to say that today as much as 50% of advanced negotiations are doomed to fail because contracts often rely on getting a subsidy and, as we know, the time of best financial perspectives for Poland is over now.

- It is so, because most today’s calls for applications are addressed to big players who do not want so much to upgrade their machinery stock but to launch a completely new innovative product on the market. In stone processing, researches, patents, innovative products are on one hand difficult to get for an investor and on the other hard to interpret in an application form and final statement of the project. All of this makes getting EU funds for stonemasons very difficult or even impossible – says Grzegorz Górski.

If not EU funds, then perhaps leasing. This may suggest a good financial condition of companies which want to finance their investments quickly and settle these costs as soon as possible. Another optimistic fact is that there is a growing demand on products and services which aim to limit the number of accidents, reduce human effort and speed up repetitive manual-transport processes.

Do we want changes because customers and contractors are not happy to hear that they will have to bear costs which are typical of handicrafts? The best way to engage workers in the change process is to let them have their say on how they work and workplace should be like.

Rafał Dobrowolski

IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE

Details

Published on Friday, 18 August 2017 12:35

It is always so that in the July issue of our bimonthly we devote the most space to companies which supply stonemasons with block materials, slabs and plates. What is then the wholesale market like, what tendencies could be seen and, finally, what is the condition of companies that operate in Poland? Like every year we asked these questions to a group of entrepreneurs.

Stone market is undoubtedly one of industries which are very sensitive to the factors that determine the global business environment. Careful readers of Świat Kamienia will not be surprised that in order to outline some trends that are visible on the Polish wholesale market we asked about the situation on the Far East. After all, while reporting on the recent Xiamen Stone Fair (6-9 March), we wrote about the announcement of revolutionary changes in the trade of imported materials.

At first we should ask about effects of the global agreement between the giants of the forwarding market. Let us remind some facts. In early 2017 “the big four” (CMA CGM, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Line, Orient Overseas Container Line) joined forces in container logistics. These companies announced the change of delivery conditions starting from spring 2017.

– There is no doubt that wholesalers pay much more for stone from the Far East now than in mid 2016, but there are many factors which contribute to the rising operating costs of companies that deal with importing stone from all over the world – says Jarek Świadek, the managing director of HGS. – The biggest change can be seen in the segment of the cheapest stones where transport costs / material costs ratio is the highest. Obviously, it is hard to generalise, because the average price increase is from $100 to over $400 per container.

Stone market has had problems with sea freights for at least a year. At first, high freight price fluctuations were surprising. The prices varied depending on stock exchange quotations. - If it comes to goods imported in containers from China, the transport cost factor is very important, especially when we deal with high import volume – emphasises Tomasz Staniszewski from Inbra Polska.

How did those symptoms influence the condition of wholesale outlets?

RENAISSANCE OF EUROPEAN STONES?

It seems that the market is ready for such “revelations”.

– I am happy about the price increase because we quit using materials from the Far East a long time ago. Now we are using Spanish and Portuguese ones – says Tomasz Dulemba from Marmury Dulemba from Kobielice. – I can say that we carefully read the market signals and got ready for problems with more “colourful” granites – I mean the growing risk of getting a worse quality material from deposits that are running out. The first symptom of a worse quality material is its colour that does not meet standards. In short, in our offer there are very good substitutes for them – these are grey and yellow Iberian granites.

We also need to say that another material may come back to fight for customers. It used to be a very interesting alternative to Chinese materials which have a very bad opinion among customers.

– As soon as the economic situation in Ukraine improved and our neighbours became more open to Europe, we decided to get interested in their granite deposits again – says Laura Rychlik from Granstein from Strzegom. – Stone deposits on extended Scandinavian tectonic plate meet durability expectations in the European climate much better than the Far East material. This causes a large interest among stone industry specialists in a flagship material called Tolkowski granite. High specific weight, uniform intense colour of our stone, satisfying thickness and fine grain of rocks coming from Ukrainian quarries ensures top quality of the final product.

Another advantage is the fact that extraction industry in Ukraine may be proud of modernized raw mineral extraction technology which enables to eliminate material losses. Diamond wire cutting is the most popular, so, in effect, granite which is separated from the deposit creates regular blocks. - Thanks to those new technologies, good contacts and agreement with the leading logistics operator we may ensure our customers constant supplies of prime Tolkowski blocks – adds Laura Rychlik. – Our goal is to restore this unique material to its former glory.

Let us add that Landpol Plus sp. z o.o. company is responsible for the transport. The location of the company in the “aggregate centre” in Lower Silesia as well as well-qualified staff who know the industry and local conditions ensure high service quality. The stone may be bought straight from the Strzegom warehouse owned by Brachot-Hermant company.

TAKE IT EASY, IT IS JUST A BREAKDOWN

Experts on China think that we are facing hyper-competition right now. The decisive factor seems to be … making the competitors' losses bigger. Confrontational strategies are about developing businesses at the expense of competitors. In extreme cases it may be about destroying them totally including taking over the market. What does it mean? We know that in case of oversupply, the stone gets cheaper. The smaller and smaller margin may be saved by phasing-out of mines (usually temporary), which obviously raises interest in a scarce type of stone on the market and usually leads to higher price in wholesale outlets.

– Problems with rising prices of scarce granite deposits from China or India are nothing new this year – says Michał Furmanek. – Our experience shows that the market can do very well in situations like this by offering substitutes. To conclude, we see rising costs of extracting stone from the Far East as a good move of those authorities since in their announcement they say that this is caused by their care for environmental protection. Temporary halt or phasing-out of mines is nothing special then. On the contrary, it is typical for our branch.

Recently, New G603 has replaced G603 and, consequently, there are now more incentives to contract supplies of New G654 at a promotional price (late May 2017) because G654 mine is supposed to be closed this year – encourages a representative of the Chinese market not mentioning the fact that official press announcements say about phasing-out extraction in 2018. Announcements like this, however, have no influence on the meetings with contractors.

– Since the beginning of the year we have recorded greater supply of stone on the market – I mean both blocks and imported slabs, but, unfortunately, it is not the same with demand. The demand is not higher and most customers are not keen on creating high levels of reserves – reveals Tomasz Staniszewski. – This strategy turned out to be the right one, because appreciation of the Polish zloty against, especially, the US dollar shows that purchasing in winter time (and also paying in that time) reduced the sales profitability in spring. When speaking about scarce types, we have to mention high-grade black stones but also some materials which production, due to various reasons, is small or became reduced drastically, for example Verde Bahia from Brazil and Madura Gold from India. If it comes to the oversupply, we need to mention Impala from South Africa and many types of Rustenburg, but their quality and colour are of average quality.

In short, effects of global changes seem to be delayed, especially when we look at them from the perspective of a small market player like Poland, a country that is working its way up with small middle class. Our market suffers from the fact that, for example, when it comes to any investments with the use of stone, money transfers are often delayed.

– Much smaller wholesale of stone this year has been caused by a giant oversupply and full stocks – says Dominik Lis from Finnstone company.

The bigger the contract for stone the longer deadline, so there is a risk of freezing a huge capital of wholesalers.

RANGE OF PRODUCTS

Among the products we can find mainly natural stone, but there are also sintered quartz and conglomerates. Press announcements tell us that technologically processed stone should have the biggest share in the offer of a wholesale outlet. But it is not so.

– Black granites are popular again. They are often used for making kitchen tops. It is enough to say that proportions of quartz conglomerates and natural stone shares have reversed – the latter one represents again 60% in products – says Tomasz Dulemba. – Obviously, we are interested in promoting Neolith brand. We have been a distributor of this brand for over a year and we are planning to organise trainings in processing of this material soon.

Does purchasing look different this year than last year? What changes can we observe?

– First quarter of 2017 was the best in history! Double digit sales growth was recorded in the first three months of this year, but the second quarter looked completely different – when compared to the same period in 2016 we recorded a large drop in sales - says Michał Furmanek. – Looking for the explanation to this situation, I think it was the weather which was responsible for it. Spring came very late this year. Easter, holidays in May did not help, either. If it comes to pricing, nothing has changed. In early June, however, we recorded symptoms of some improvement.

According to the Pareto principle, from the point of view of warehouse management these important elements represent about 20% because they are responsible for about 80% of sales. How about the sales in stone warehouses? Our survey shows that materials (types of stone) which sell quickly usually represent around 30%. It means that the remaining 70% is not very important for the order portfolio, but every good wholesaler should offer a wide range of products. It is usually so that onyxes – one of the most expensive materials – do not show that a company is profitable, but they are niche products which means that the margin is satisfying. Wholesalers fight for stonemasons' portfolios in various ways. Those that are worried about low margins cut operating costs by, for example, quitting delivery service which is included in the price of the material or even by limiting “warehouse airing”. Some are improving their websites. More and more online business cards are showing up-to-date stocks and offer various search filters to their logged-in users. In most cases the access to orders or even wider view is available only to registered users-entrepreneurs.

OFFENSIVE OF WHOLESALE OUTLETS

We have been saying for years that wholesale market will face consolidation of smaller players. The first company that consolidated warehouses under a recognizable brand is Granit-Color which owns a well-organized distribution network (including Slovakia). The headquarters of the company are located in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski and wholesale outlets which work as partners (franchise agreement) can be found in more than 20 locations – concentrated mainly in East Poland. Some warehouses, however, have disappeared recently (in Radom or Lublin, for example).

Let us compare the above with debuts. The warehouse in Szczecin, for example, is an initiative of Tiera Stones Sp. z o.o. Sp.k. whilst the warehouse owned by Granex ZPH s.c. can be found near Kielce. R&R Granity found its place on the Warsaw market in early 2017. So did Stone World from Tarczyn in Katowice. A new warehouse can be also found in Łódź – this one is in the hands of Olgran Sp. z o.o. Sp.k. The latter company deserves some attention because this new company launched its sales offices in three provinces: Łódzkie, Silesian and Lower Silesian. Łódź-based stone wholesale outlet owned by Magma, on the other hand, has extended its capacity and stock by as much as a third.

This is not a complete picture, because we can also see that some companies quit their wholesale outlets in some parts of the country. In Sosnowiec, for example, the branch of Hurtownia Impali CB J. Kiszkiel & M. Jastrząb sp.j. was closed. Levantina Sp. z o.o. decided to close its warehouse in Gdańsk. We can also notice changes of addresses, so in this case the number of branch offices is not reduced. For example, Marble & Quartzite Polska Sp. z o.o. wholesale outlet in Tychy has been replaced by a warehouse in Będzin (it was opened in spring 2017) and the new warehouse by M+Q in Warsaw will be moved to Łazy in August this year (further information – and especially an up-to-date list of wholesale outlets broken down into provinces – is available on our map of wholesale outlets). This long list suggests that information about new warehouses cover the announcements about closing warehouses. The sector of suppliers for whom immediately available material is the most important is getting stronger. So, rumours that this business is not profitable should not be taken seriously.

– Professionalization of the industry is a permanent and more and more visible phenomenon. - says Tomasz Staniszewski. – I think it is just a matter of time to see more mergers or takeovers (like Svimpex-Emmaboda) on the market. Another step? The industry must make its export offer more popular in (at least) neighbouring countries. Huge production potential created with support of EU funds will be used properly then.

Just a decade ago the capital city of Poland was the most successful in attracting those that wanted to invest in stone warehouses. But in early 2010s wholesalers in Silesia got stronger. What is more, this mining region is still powerful which can be proven by the fact that the most impressive company seat (a huge complex in Wojkowice which was built nearly two years ago) is owned by WKG company. The company specialises in rock mining and is more and more successful in providing Czech companies with Raciszyński travertine.

Other offices, right now in the form of branches offering ready made tombs, work at the initiative of stone companies located in border regions, for example in the Czech Republic. Perhaps we should expect offensive of wholesale outlets. Let us remind that apart from wholesale business in the strict meaning of this word there are also a lot of stone companies – usually they are owned by large manufacturers of stone goods or they are just authorized representatives of particular products.

– Although stone and stone-related wholesale is not a core business of our company, we specialise in offering so-called partial slabs – for example half slabs – explains Tomasz Dulemba. - Our offer is interesting for local stonemasons for whom buying such a material is a kind of remedy for works that need less lost material. We stick to the rule that we sell only to stonemasons. Wholesale is wholesale, so we are not going to serve, for example, architects or individual customers by offering them slabs. We send these customers to our processing plant where they can get final products, often with installation.

Supply of this material is not the core business of this company. Stone production is. According to the information we gathered, the demand for “partial material” has been growing since prices of white Carrara marbles (Carrara, Calacatta, Statuario) increased by 100% in the last few years. How about Polish materials? In early June we could see shortages of Strzegom granites, but this is a kind of normal, so most probably this stone will be available in autumn again.

Rafał Dobrowolski

Photo by R. Dobrowolski

Hyper-competition has come

Michał Furmanek, manager at Furmanek Trading:

The market is oversaturated with bulk material to such an extent that we can speak about hyper-competition. For us, higher quality is a priority because we believe that a good type of stone will defend itself. Our wishes, however, do not always become reality so we have to do our best to make our business look as we want it. We still have to choose between selling at a lower price or maybe at a little higher but with quality guarantee?

Chinese stone is still strong

Jarosław Świadek, managing director of HGS:

It is said that because of environmental restrictions availability of the granites from the Far East will be going down. For sure we will have to say goodbye to some types of stone. But we can be sure that the giants of the market will prevent Iberian granite from replacing more scarce ones. I am sure of it because I have visited China recently in order to contract supplies of a new material. It turned out that the material some people were sure will not be sold any more will be still available.

Tolkowski's comeback

Laura Rychlik, Granstein company from Strzegom:

Contacts with the Ukrainian extraction branch contributed this year to the re-introduction of some materials in the Polish wholesale market. Right now we are developing stone trade mainly in Lower Silesia (stone arrives there by train), but soon we would like to develop our sales in other provinces and also in neighbouring countries. Since we launched our railway siding, we have been transporting our raw materials by train. Good cooperation with local stone companies enables us to offer stone slabs in any thickness.

STONE SCULPTURE SHOW

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 11:14

This year's edition of Stone fair will include a stone sculpture show during which works made at the international symposium in Orońsk will be presented. The visitors of the fair will have an opportunity to see stone sculptures made by students from Poland and Finland. This year's edition of the international symposium was entitled “Initium”.

MARITIME INDUSTRY IS AS STRONG AS A STONE

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 11:07

The 5th edition of the International Maritime Congress was held on 8–9 June in Szczecin. The congress serves as a discussion and meeting platform for maritime economy representatives. During the meeting we could hear about the infrastructure investment plan which involves spending a billion zlotys (ca. €250 million) on the ports in Szczecin and Świnoujście during the 2014-2020 EU funding period.

SCHOOL FOR STONEMASONS-TO-BE

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 10:58

The new school will be set up at the Border Protection Corps School Complex in Szydłowiec. This new professional first-level school will be teaching students who want to become stonemasons. Middle school graduates are free to submit their applications to the school office by 28 June 2017.

STUDENTS RESTORED THE 17TH-CENTURY GRAVESTONE

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 10:51

Restoration of an old gravestone was a part of the internship organised by the State Construction Schools in Gdansk. The students needed a few weeks to restore the former splendour of wooden furniture, iron medieval nails, silver cutlery and a gravestone made of sandstone.

MULTI-PURPOSE COMPLEX IN ŻERAŃ

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 09:45

Warsaw is going to have a unique place that combines post-industrial architecture and special features. The building process of the exhibition centre in the area of former FSO (Passenger Automobile Factory) at Modlińska street began in June 2017. This complex has been designed by Tremend design studio. According to the concept of the architects, the new building will maintain the character of storage halls from 1970s. This effect will be achieved by leaving the old building's elements related to its functionality like cranes, a railway or a 4-tonne cargo elevator.

WKG ON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES OF EXTRACTION AND PROCESSING OF STONE BLOCKS

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 09:38

During 5th edition of Open-Pit Mining School (11-14 June in Zakopane), which is one of the most important stone industry events in Poland, representatives of MMG i WKG presented their knowledge on choosing the methods of rock extraction and capabilities of advanced equipment. - We are glad to be able to show the potential of our machinery park and to share unique knowledge on stone extraction and processing – said Dr. Zbigniew Rybakiewicz, the president of MMG.

VITORIA STONE FAIR 2017

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 09:06

The change of the date of the Vitoria Stone Fair l Marmomac Latin America 2017 to June turned out to be no problem for exhibitors. They managed to present their stone-related products, machinery and latest stone technology. The international marble and granite fair, which ended on June 9, brought together more than 300 exhibitors from 20 countries.

MICKIEWICZ IN CRACOW AND NUTSHELLS

Details

Published on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 08:17

Nutshells will help the monument of Adam Mickiewicz – such news spread through Polish media in mid June. The monument regained its former glory after the renovation. It was the first thorough renovation in the last 20 years. The figure of Adam Mickiewicz, a famous Polish poet, was cleaned by means of specially prepared peanut shells. The renovation cost 78,000 zlotys (ca. €19,500).